Hi All,

I am back to the Blood Bank after a 5 year hiatus (and so glad to be back ). In the new facility I'm at, we have a copy of Lucia Berte's 2007 Transfusion Service Manual of SOPs, Training Guides, and Competence Assessment Tools. Has anyone else read this book? I'm really liking the way she advises organizing a procedure manual- really with flow charts that describe your processes. For example, you'd have a flow chart for a type and screen, another for antibody ID, etc. I'm thinking this approach may help the generalists (everyone that works in blood bank except me) find what they need quickly. Does anyone set their manuals up like this?

Any thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks,

Jane

No, but it sounds an amazingly good idea.

We have a regular Procedure Manual with all of the step-by-step procedures, etc. Then a couple years ago, I wrote flow charts for all the BB processes. You are right, Jane.... our flow chart for Antibody Identification seems to be a good tool, particularly for the novice or inexperienced immunohematologist. (Writing up the flow charts for our processes really wasn't much work, once I got rolling.)

Donna

CLSSI (or whatever the new NCCLS abbreviation is) has some good guidelines on writing procedures. I think Lucia wrote some of them. I have heard her give lectures as well. I think it is a great system. Defining processes as separate from procedures can help make things more clear. Not everything comes out as neat as one might hope because we sometimes have processes within processes or can't quite decide how things fit together.

Flow charts are good firstly when drafting an SOP to identify all the critical steps in a procedure which then facilitates doing the text. The flow chart is then incorporated as the last page foreasyquick reference with all the detail to be found in the text.

Donna, would you be able to share any of your flowcharts on this forum? I'm in the same situation as Jane, with generalists rotating through. I made up some flowcharts, but I'm always looking to finetune them. Thanks, Molly

Jane, before I left my previous world I was in the process of writing a procedure manual for the new blood bank computer system. It was almost exclusively flow charts. This manual was to be used by facilities ranging from 15 - 20 bed rural hospitals to 500+ bed level I trauma centers. The idea of flow charts was not universally accepted initially but as the process moved along most everyone came on board, especially the generalists who worked in blood bank only occasionally. I am a big fan of flow chart SOPs.

Donna, I would also appreciate if you could share some of your charts on this forum, especially your flow chart for Antibody Identification.Thanks

I am in the process of re-organizing our procedure manuals. I have decided to have 3 manuals, 1 each for Quality Assurance, Technical Procedures and Inventory Management.

I have constructed flow charts for use following a positive antibody screen. One is for a standard positive (panel, selected cells, antigen typing, etc) and the other is for when there is a positive auto-control. Our techs seem to love flow charts!

If anyone is able to share their flow charts here, I'd love to see them. Sometimes, it seems like getting started on something so daunting isn't as hard if you can get ideas from someone else.

Thanks!

Jane

Microsoft has a flowchart program called Visio (sp?) that I used. It was a terrific tool and allowed to to stay as simple of get as fancy as you wanted.

Word has a fair amount of flowchart capability these days.

Hopefully, this is an example of one of our flow charts.

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I will try again:

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This is very probably a silly question L106 (mine usually are!), but what do you do if you cannot resolve the antibody problem (I don't mean what do you do in the lab - but do you not need that bit on the flowchart, just in case)?

No, you are right, Malcolm. I should probably add one more step at the bottom of each branch stating something to the effect "If unable to resolve, consult BB Supvervisor or Assistant Supervisor." (I have that stated in our traditional procedures in our SOP.)

Donna

Thanks Donna. I didn't know if you might take that as an insult (it wasn't meant that way in the least).

Not insulted at all. You made a good point, Malcolm.

I found a ton of flow charts on the TraQ website today. They are disguised as "job aids." They are great but don't seem to combine multiple SOPs. Still a good resource.

Hi Donna,

Can you share your flow charts SOP

Eva

OMG~! I just found another manual on the TraQ website with flow charts for most standard blood bank processes (developed with Lucia Berte). If anyone wants to check it out for tons of flow-charted goodness: www.traqprogram.ca

To find the flow charts (site path): Resources-Manuals-TraQ/PBCO Manuals-Technical Operations Manual-scroll down to processes.

Enjoy!

Thanks, Jane! Super!! These are better than the flow charts that I have written. (More complicated than mine, but you could make them as simple or as detailed as you want.)

Donna